In
May, the balance of current account was close to zero, same as last year,
compared with the surplus of USD 0.2 billion in April due to a widening of
the trade in goods deficit.

In January–May,
the current account deficit widened to USD 415 million (from USD 308
million over the same period last year).

In May, exports of goods amounted to USD 3.6
billion, that is 13.2% higher than last year.

Favorable external prices supported the
growth in exports, however, it slowed down due to the depletion of carry-over
stocks of grain and oil crops. As a result, food exports decreased by 3.3% yoy in May.

However, thanks to external prices remaining
favorable and the growth in production of certain chemical products, the
exports of metallurgical (30.2% yoy) and chemical
(49.2% yoy) industries grew rapidly.

In general, exports of
goods rose by 11.8% yoy over five months of 2018
and amounted to USD 17.8 billion.

Imports of goods reached USD 4.6 billion in
May.Compared with May 2017, imports
increased by 15.5% on the back of higher energy prices and a sustainable
domestic demand growth.

Due to the rise in global
oil prices, the import value rose by 42.3% yoy for
oil products and by 8.4% yoy for natural gas. High
domestic demand fueled imports of mechanical engineering products by 17.8% yoy.

In total, imports of goods
grew by 14.3% yoy in January–May to reach USD 21.1
billion.

Net financial account inflows amounted to USD 307 million in May (compared with USD 339 million in May
2017) and were generated by the private sector (both banks and real sector). As the state was making repayments on hryvnia domestic
government bonds held by non-residents and repayments of loans, the net
outflows from public sector operations reached USD 113 million.

Foreign direct investments remained at the level of
previous months (USD 150 million), but
over half of their total volume was channeled to the banking sector via
debt-to-equity transactions.

In January–May 2018, net
FDI inflows amounted to USD 719 million.

Net financial account
inflows totaled USD 701 million in January–May.

In May, the
balance of payments recorded a surplus of USD 266 million. At the
same time, due to payments to the IMF, international reserves decreased by 1.6%
to USD 18.2 billion as of early June, covering 3.2 months of future imports.